How to Create an International Commercial Invoice Template (+ WooCommerce Guide)

A commercial invoice template is a structured export document that lists the seller and buyer details, invoice number, date, currency, country of origin, terms of sale, HS-friendly item descriptions, quantities, unit prices, and total shipment value formatted for customs clearance and international shipping.

For WooCommerce stores, the platform doesn’t generate commercial invoices by default. You need a dedicated invoice plugin like Challan to automatically create, customize, and attach a commercial invoice PDF to every international order.

This guide covers what a commercial invoice is, what it must include, how to create one manually or with WooCommerce, and how to generate a compliant commercial invoice template for carriers like DHL, FedEx, and UPS.

What Is a Commercial Invoice?

A commercial invoice is a legal export document required for international shipments. Customs authorities use it to assess the value of goods, calculate applicable import duties and taxes, and determine whether the shipment complies with trade regulations.

Unlike a standard sales invoice, a commercial invoice is specifically designed for cross-border transactions. It must include specific fields such as country of origin, Harmonized System (HS) codes, and terms of sale that customs officials need to process the shipment.

Without an accurate commercial invoice, shipments can face delays, fines, or confiscation at the border.

What Does a Commercial Invoice Look Like?

A standard commercial invoice format includes a header with seller and buyer details, a line-item table listing each product, and a footer section with totals, signatures, and declarations. Most templates follow an A4 or Letter paper size and are issued as a PDF for customs submission.

What Must Be Included on a Commercial Invoice?

Here are the 14 required fields for a compliant commercial invoice for international shipping:

Field	Description
Seller’s Information	Business name, address, phone, email
Buyer’s Information	Customer name, billing and shipping address
Invoice Number	Unique sequential number for tracking
Invoice Date	Date the invoice was issued
Customer Reference Number	Optional reference for the buyer’s records
Terms of Sale (Incoterms)	e.g., FOB, CIF, DDP define cost/risk responsibility
Terms of Payment	Payment method, due date, discounts
Currency	Agreed transaction currency
Shipment Method	Air, sea, or land; carrier name and tracking number
Quantity	Number of units per line item
Item Description	Product name, type, packaging, gross weight
Total Value	Unit price × quantity for each line; grand total
Country of Origin	Where the goods were manufactured
Declaration and Signature	Signed statement confirming accuracy

Is an HS Code Required on a Commercial Invoice?

HS (Harmonized System) codes are not always legally required on a commercial invoice, but most international carriers including DHL, FedEx, and UPS strongly recommend including them. Customs authorities in many countries use HS codes to determine duty rates. Including accurate HS codes speeds up customs clearance and reduces the risk of shipment delays.

Types of International Commercial Invoice Templates

Different carriers and trade routes use slightly different commercial invoice formats. Here are the most common types:

Canadian Commercial Invoice Template

Required for shipments crossing into or out of Canada. Must include a Canada Customs invoice format with fields for country of origin, vendor details, and applicable duty codes. Often used for Canada-to-USA shipments.

FedEx Commercial Invoice Template 

FedEx requires its own commercial invoice form for international shipments. It includes specific fields for terms of sale, special instructions, and commodity descriptions. You can download it from the FedEx website or generate it directly through your FedEx account.

DHL Commercial Invoice Template 

Used when submitting international packages through DHL. The DHL commercial invoice format requires importer/exporter details, a commodity description, and declared value in the shipment currency.

UPS Commercial Invoice Template 

Required for UPS international shipments. The UPS commercial invoice form includes fields for consignee billing, terms of sale, and country of manufacture. Available as a fillable PDF from the UPS website.

USPS Commercial Invoice 

Used for international parcels shipped through the United States Postal Service. Required for packages sent to most countries outside the US.

How to Create a Commercial Invoice for International Shipping

You can create a commercial invoice manually using a template or automatically using invoice software. Here’s the manual method first useful if you ship occasionally or need a one-time commercial invoice for export.

Step 1: Download a Commercial Invoice Template

Start with a pre-designed commercial invoice template in Word, PDF, or Excel format. Use a template that includes all required fields. This saves setup time and reduces the chance of missing critical customs information.

Look for a free commercial invoice template that covers: seller details, buyer details, invoice number, item descriptions, HS codes, country of origin, terms of sale, currency, and a signature block.

Step 2: Fill In Seller Details

Enter your business name, full address, phone number, and email address. Keep this information accurate and consistent with your business registration to avoid customs issues.

Step 3: Fill In Buyer (Importer) Details

Add the customer’s full name or company name, contact information, and shipping address. If the consignee, the party receiving the goods, differs from the buyer, include both addresses separately.

Step 4: Assign an Invoice Number and Date

Use sequential invoice numbering (e.g., INV-001, INV-002). The invoice date should match the date of shipment or sale. Customs authorities use the invoice number and date to cross-reference shipment records.

Step 5: Add Terms of Sale and Payment

Specify the Incoterms (e.g., FOB, CIF, DDP, EXW) that define which party is responsible for shipping costs, insurance, and risk at each stage of transit. Then include the agreed payment terms: total purchase price, due date, and any late payment conditions.

Step 6: List All Items With Descriptions and Values

For each product in the shipment, include:

• A clear description of the goods
• Quantity and unit of measurement
• Unit price
• Total value per line item
• Country of origin
• HS code (recommended for customs)
• Gross weight and packaging type

Accurate item descriptions are critical. Vague entries like “merchandise” or “gift” are frequently flagged by customs and can delay clearance.

Step 7: Include Shipment Method and Tracking

Indicate the mode of transport (air, sea, land) and the carrier name. If available, add the Air Waybill (AWB) number or tracking number. Customs and the buyer both rely on this information to track the shipment.

Step 8: Add Declaration and Signature

At the bottom of the commercial invoice, include a signed declaration confirming that all information is accurate and truthful. This is a legal requirement in most countries. Without a signature, the invoice may be rejected at customs.

How to Generate a WooCommerce Commercial Invoice Template Automatically

Manually creating a commercial invoice for every international order is impractical at scale. WooCommerce does not include a built-in commercial invoice generator, so you need a plugin to automate the process.

This section walks through generating commercial invoices using the Challan plugin.

Why Should You Use Challan Invoice Generator Plugin?

• Freemium Plugin
• Generate template for commercial invoices in just a couple of minutes
• Attach packing slips along with invoices and print shipping labels
• Set background images in invoice and packing list templates.
• Include Signature in invoices
• Include product SKUs, descriptions, and images in the order table.
• Add custom meta fields to invoices and packing lists.
• Download and bulk print invoices and packing lists.
• Customize packing slips and invoices with CSS.
• Support for WPML in documents.

Step 1 Install and Activate the Challan Plugin

Now, in order to make a commercial invoice WooCommerce through this plugin, you have to install and activate it. 

So from your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins>>Add New Plugin, and then search for “Challan”. Once you find it, install and activate the plugin. 

Here’s the best part! As soon as you install & activate Challan, it will start generating invoices. So, you will immediately be able to print invoices for all your previous orders. But how, you ask?

Simply go to any order page, and you’ll find the dedicated Challan invoice panel on the right. From there, you can easily download or print invoices for that specific order. Sounds great, right? Well, it really is. 

It will be generating basic invoices which will look like this: 

Now let’s make commercial invoices for the orders. From the right-hand side of your WordPress Dashboard go to the Challan menu and click on “Settings”. 

You will find multiple tabs of the Challan plugin. Let’s get in the first tab and have a look. 

Settings Section

The first option will enable the invoice creation process. After that, you can set up the language and font of your commercial invoices. 

Then, there are two options – 

Allow My Account To – In this section, you can choose when your customers can download invoices and credit notes directly from their My Account page.

Invoice Attach to Email – This option lets you specify which emails should have invoices attached.

Scroll down below and you will find the option to enable the Bar code and QR code for your PDF invoices. However, you might not need to use Bar codes and QR codes for commercial invoices. 

Down below you will get the “pagination settings” where you can select your invoice’s page number. 

If you want to add page numbers to your packing slips or credit note templates, you have that option as well. 

Furthermore, you get to choose the page number style too. There are numerous options available. As you can I have chosen to go for “”1,2,3” style.

Now let’s get into the next tab which is “invoice”. 

Invoice Section

Can I customize the look of my WooCommerce commercial invoice? 

Yes, under this tab, a proper WooCommerce invoice customization can be done. But how, you ask? Give it a look. 

Let’s start by talking about one awesome feature. You can change the invoice template look and paper size in just a couple of seconds.

 Just click on the “Select Template” option.

There you will get 6 awesome WooCommerce invoice templates will be waiting for you. 

Next up, you should click on the “Paper Size” feature.

There, you can change the paper size to A3, A4, A5, or Letter or if you want, you can even select a custom paper size as well. 

How to Add a Title to a WooCommerce Commercial Invoice?

After that, let’s get into an important part. When you generate a commercial invoice for WooCommerce, it should have a title named “Commercial Invoice”. 

Now, manually creating it would take time. But by using this plugin you can show it in just two steps. 

At first, toggle in the “enable invoice title” option and then put in the title as “Commercial Invoice”.

That’s it, your invoices will be generated with that title. 

What’s next? 

Another important part of the WooCommerce commercial invoice template is the adding signature option. Without a signature, it won’t be a proper invoice. 

So, you may ask, how do I add a signature to my WooCommerce Commercial Invoice?

Just scroll down and toggle on the “Enable signature” option, then upload your signature.

Then from the Order Info section, you can decide if you want to display the order number or not. Also, you get to add a prefix and suffix to your order numbers. What else, you say?

Well, it’s possible to display the shipping total with or without tax too. 

Let’s move on to one of the most important sections of WooCommerce commercial invoices. It’s the invoice numbers. 

So, you need to go down below and there you will be able to customize invoice number, date, and currency here. You can decide whether you want to display the options or not just by toggling it on or off.

How do you change the invoice number format in WooCommerce?

Simply click on the “Numbering Type” option, and you’ll be able to adjust the WooCommerce invoice number format. 

Then in the “Product Info” section, you’ll have the option to edit your product lists. 

You can now set how many products to display per page. And it doesn’t end there, you can also display-

• product images, 
• categories, 
• descriptions, 
• different attributes
• Short or long descriptions

Worried about the Tax and VAT issues? Well, don’t be. 

As you know WooCommerce does all the tax calculations of your store. You just have to enable or disable the options to show them or not in the commercial invoices. 

Done with this invoice tab? Then click on “save changes” and move on to the next tab. 

Seller & Buyer

It’s time to set up the seller & buyer tab. In this tab, you will be able to set up the details about the exporter or importer. 

Here, you can set up the company logo, name, VAT number, and company details. 

As you can see, we have set up the company name, VAT number, and address in it. We don’t use a logo in our commercial invoices but, if you want you can use one.

What about the buyer’s information? 

Just go down below and you will be able to set up that info too. 

Done setting it up? Well, don’t forget to click on “save changes”. 

Here’s how the WooCommerce Commercial Invoice Template generated by Challan looks: 

Best WooCommerce Plugin for Generating Commercial Invoices

Challan is a freemium WooCommerce invoice generator plugin that automatically creates PDF commercial invoices for every order. It works immediately after activation — no manual setup required per order.

It is particularly useful for WooCommerce stores shipping internationally, where commercial invoices need to be consistently formatted, accurately labeled, and attached to shipment emails.

Key Features

• Automatically generates commercial invoice PDFs for all WooCommerce orders
• Six customizable invoice templates with paper size options (A3, A4, A5, Letter, custom)
• Add invoice title, signature, logo, VAT number, and company details
• Display product descriptions, SKUs, images, categories, and custom attributes (including HS codes)
• Custom invoice numbering with prefix, suffix, and format options
• Bulk download and print invoices and packing slips
• Attach invoices automatically to WooCommerce order emails
• Add custom meta fields to invoices
• CSS customization for advanced styling
• WPML support for multilingual invoices
• Barcode and QR code support

Frequently Asked Questions

Key Takeaways

• A commercial invoice is a required customs document for all international shipments. It must include seller and buyer details, item descriptions, HS codes (recommended), country of origin, terms of sale, currency, and a signed declaration.
• Commercial invoice templates are available in multiple formats Word, PDF, Excel and vary by carrier: FedEx, DHL, UPS, USPS, and Canada all have specific format requirements.
• WooCommerce does not generate commercial invoices by default. A plugin like Challan automates the entire process creating, customizing, and attaching PDF commercial invoices to every international order.
• Always label your document “Commercial Invoice” clearly customs will reject documents that are labeled as generic invoices or order receipts.
• Including HS codes, country of origin, and accurate item descriptions on every invoice reduces customs delays and duty miscalculations.
• For Canada-to-USA shipments or carrier-specific submissions (FedEx, DHL, UPS), use the appropriate commercial invoice format to meet each carrier’s documentation requirements.